miratrix

I definitely feel the same effect. After my last school visit, I was nearly positive I was going there, but I made myself wait a full week before accepting because I KNOW how visits excite me. Oddly enough, I felt like that excitement was less of a factor there because it wasn't as friendly and fun-seeming a place as the other school I was strongly considering (not so much a red flag as a New England vs. southern cultural thing, I think), but the choice seemed very clear financially, academically, and geographically. I think the week of waiting just made me more comfortable with and clear on the decision. Good luck

I've heard the same thing, simply on grounds that there are many more anthropology than archaeology departments in the US and they often want to hire people who can teach basic courses in all the fields. If I were you, though, I'd ask detailed questions of people at all three schools about job placement for recent graduates.

I'm going to Brown. Decided last week and pretty excited. Good luck to those of you still making choices and awaiting information!

I'm quitting my job at the beginning of June and moving back home with my family for a month because I haven't seen them since Christmas. Then I'm going on a dig for the rest of the summer, which I'm excited about because of the location and the people (worked with them last year). I'll have about a week and a half between getting back and grad school orientation.

Me too. I didn't assume most of them would accept me, but I liked researching schools, fantasizing about what kind of life I could have there, and just generally making plans for the future and choosing between options in my mind. I also liked getting a few acceptances and having visions of the future to juggle. Now that I've decided, I guess I'll have to start thinking about interesting excuses to travel for fieldwork, research, or conferences, since I am a travel junkie and I love making plans. I also liked waiting just a little bit. It was torture, but exciting torture. It's so boring to check the mail and know there's no major news coming, just bank statements. This happened after I applied to college, too, I'd have this vestigial excitement about the mail and then remember the cycle was over and there was no more news. There was plenty I hated, though: 1. The FEES! 2. The GRE, because who likes standardized testing? 3. The emailing and meeting professors, it made me horribly nervous and I couldn't really look at it as a networking opportunity because I was too busy worrying about not looking like an idiot. Campus visits after acceptance were fun, but before applying, they were awful. 4. The SOP writing, because I like writing about academic content, but I find it excruciatingly dull and difficult to write about myself. People who looked at my early drafts told me it needed to be more "personal" and "emotive" and "narrative" because I just wanted to write about interesting research projects and questions, not about why I, personally, became interested in them. I hope grant writing will be better for me. 5. Rejection. Fortunately, I got my rejections after I got my good news, so my reaction was more "SUCKAAAAAAAS!" than mourning. One of the rejections was from my first choice, but I feel like the school I'm going to will be a better fit after all! If I didn't get in anywhere, I probably wouldn't do it again, because I applied to a couple schools that were definitely safeties and I wouldn't really have had other options. I might've applied next year for a different, more vocational program to advance in my current field though.

Congrats, I'm so happy to hear you got into your first choice! You'll have a great time with your horses in Vermont

I think it's not that clear a choice...either way, the advisor situation isn't perfect, and you're really weighing loans against future job options. Are the TT placements at school B really so much better that you'd feel confident you could pay back at least another year's worth of loans, and possibly more, or would it be better to just graduate without debt? Also, if I'm understanding you right and you need to take courses with your future advisor, it is a big deal if the advisor isn't there and the courses aren't available. Maybe it would be better to go for the present-but-overstretched advisor, the students taking papers to the writing service could be not as bad as it looks if they're going mainly in early stages for structural and writing advice, and able to ask their advisor to look closely at the content when the writing is a little more polished. I'd say it's worth talking to those students more and getting a better idea what their experience is like.

Congratulations! I was rooting for you, so glad to hear it worked out Also, I'm going to see Tyr (and Alestorm) too, this Sunday in NY! Somehow I'm more shocked to find another Tyr fan than another Viking ship reconstruction enthusiast on this forum...but I guess they go together, huh?

Just want to add another number to this - I live just outside Cambridge, in a pretty nice area, and my rent is only $520, bills around $50. And I live on around $13K, I'm careful about money but not deprived.

I didn't apply to Chicago, but to add my $0.02, I did seriously consider doing a longer MA at a less well-known program, while working and taking out loans for living expenses in a major city. I think if the program is short and you can get through with, say, $10-15000 in loans, it's up there in cost with a good used car, not a house or a private college education. From that perspective it could be worth it, especially if their PhD placement rates are really good.

I'd heard back from 5 of 7 schools as of last Thursday (4 offers), and realized one of them was the place to be even though I hadn't visited or spoken much to people from one school that accepted me, and even though I STILL haven't heard back from two. So I decided and sent in my acceptance on Friday. I was really shocked by how easy a choice it turned out to be, and don't think I'll second-guess it when I heard back from the others.

It is anticlimactic to make a decision, after months of applying and requesting advice and recommendations and waiting and narrowing it down all of a sudden...you just send a piece of paper and that's it, go back to your life for another six months! Seriously, why is nobody else as excited about this news as I am?! It makes sense that there's a psychological come-down.... As for second-guessing, the way I look at it is that there is not a right choice and several wrong choices. There are just different paths you can take, and you can make whichever one you choose work out right. Try to focus on the path you're on now.

I agree that you shouldn't pass up a fully funded PhD offer unless you really, really, really want to go to the MAPSS...because you have a sure thing now, and you can't be positive what you'll be offered two years down the road.

I also just decided to go to Brown, and am pretty excited about winding up there in the fall Wish I could help with housing advice, but alas, I can't...I'm actually kind of hoping to end up living with a friend who's already in the Applied Math department, so I won't have to do the apartment hunting

I felt like I had to decide on one program before all the others, since it was an MA program asking for an early answer, so I wrote to them a few days ago. They wrote back saying "ok, cool, so what PhD program are you going to?" Dudes, I don't know yet! I had basically decided in my mind last Friday, but wanted to sit on it for a week after visiting in order to be sure, and today I got off the waitlist at another school. Back to decisions...after that first response, I don't want to notify any program that I'm not attending until I know what program I AM attending, in case they ask.

$20K is absolutely fine for one person for Boston & Cambridge (not sure about supporting a family). I manage to live comfortably on several thousand less. Wish I could help with LA & NYC.

Just contact whoever you've been in touch with there - professors might be best - and ask if they could put you in touch with current students. It's pretty common.

Maybe you'll be able to find a compatible roommate through your department (you can usually tell from email & phone) and have them find a place? Good luck!

haha, i'm not at all worried about crossing disciplines, more about finding love at all! i'm picky, but not picky enough that flavor of nerdiness really matters

sounds excellent! fingers crossed for you! last time i met someone it was like "hey how did i ever think archaeology was interesting?" for a month or two (during which i went to a conference and on a dig), so it is a REALLY strong distraction! alas, i've been single too long. strategy for grad school, since my discipline is overwhelmingly female: follow applied math friends to math/comp sci parties, where the gender ratio is skewed the other way. i realize how sad that sounds, but maybe i'll find an equally pathetic nerd, right?

The comments have a lot of good advice already, so I just have a couple extra suggestions to add to the pile: first, check your parents' health insurance and exactly how long it's good for, mine was supposed to end when I turned 23 (summer birthday) but actually continued until the end of the calendar year when I turned 23; second, if you're looking for something to do during the year off, consider Americorps, which doesn't pay well but is for a fixed term and includes benefits; third, on the off-chance you live in MA, we have subsidized health insurance, which is killing the state budget but is pretty awesome if for some reason you can't get job-based coverage.

It might be acceptances first, rejection next, but it might just be alphabetical, like first wave is applicants A-M and second is applicants N-Z. A week is not enough time for people in the "first wave" to decide and admits from the "second wave" to be chosen in their place.

I think it means he doesn't know anything about the current status of your application, whether there is a decision or what it might be, but he will check to find out. I would analyze it as "no news."

I'll be out of the country until August 15, so it's going to be pretty tight getting home and moving in. I'm hoping that I'll be moving in with friends, and able to make a trip down to look for an apartment in June, or to say "hey guys can you find one?" over the summer.

Sometimes it might take more than a visit. I received offers from 3 schools, 2 local, and just finished visiting the non-local ones. I feel like the last school I visited is clearly the best choice in almost every way, but I know myself well and know that I'm very easily swayed by liking people (so that even if things like academic focus and finances are problematic, I feel guilty about the idea of saying no to such lovely individuals, with this effect being stronger the more recently I spoke with them). To compensate, I'm making myself wait a full week after the last visit to formalize my decision so I have time to let things settle a bit more. It will still be almost a month before April 15, so I don't feel bad about that at all.